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Yes that could be it. When I talked to the supplier/installer about it he said that the noise seems to be different for different vehicles. He said a 2/3 sized rack which sits further back from the windscreen would be an improvement. On my previous defender I had the Frontrunner rack and it sat a bit higher than the rhino rack and wasn't too bad with the noise.Quote:
Originally Posted by DocDisco
I don't know, mine is 2128mm and fills the long rails and finishes forward of the sunroof which is the highest point between roof and rack.
Does anyone have any idea if there is anything significant in the relative strength of the Rhinorack foot attachment to the roof rails vs the Frontrunner attachment directly to the roof. I am thinking about lifting forces at highway speeds.
The real question is do you intend to take your Disco off road?
First off, the maximum roof load rating of a Discovery 5 is 80kg (Owners manual - Tech Specs - Weights). Keep in mind a typical roof rack might weigh 25kg, so this will leave you with a permissible 55kg of cargo weight on the roof. Just to be clear these are dynamic load ratings which manufacturer's make hard to find on their websites. They will often show their static rating (rating when stopped) but not dynamic (rating when moving).
As you mentioned the Rhinorack is foot mounted and not bolted to the chassis like the Frontrunner. This makes no difference if you intend on driving the car on sealed roads as both racks are capable of handling the full load of 80kg. If you do venture off road however you need to check the manufacturer's off road rating. This is where things change. The Frontrunner rack is rated the same on and off road but is still limited to the cars capacity of 80kg. The Rhinorack's off road rating drops to 36kg (refer to screenshot), so minus the 25kg roof rack weight you are left with only 11kg of cargo.
I have a Frontrunner Expedition rack which I do find rather noisy over 80kph. I have installed the wind deflector but have not noticed a huge difference in noise reduction. That said the deflector does not run the full width of the rack and has gaps either side which might be causing turbulence. Frontrunner are great if you plan on going off road thanks to all the accessories, although not cheap they are well made and there is a huge variety. Installation is not that hard, there are some videos and forums with installation photos which help. I managed to get it on by myself. You can still open the sunroof with the Frontrunner but I doubt you'll want to due to the noise, even at low speeds.
Hope this has helped. Manufacturer's deliberately bury a lot of this information (dynamic ratings) which leads to uninformed consumer purchases and ultimately damaged vehicles that are not covered under insurance.
Chris
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